Greenpeace Paints Stern Of US Tuna Fisher

Greenpeace Paints Stern of US Tuna
Fisher

Pacific Ocean, Sunday, 20 April 2008:
Today Greenpeace took action against the US purse seiner,
Cape Finisterre, in a pocket of international waters between
Pacific Island countries. Activists painted the side of the
vessel with the words "Tuna overkill" and held a banner
reading 'Marine reserves NOW'. The fishing vessel was asked
to leave the area immediately.

The Greenpeace ship
Esperanza is in the Pacific to defend the Pacific Commons -
pockets of international waters between Pacific Island
Countries - as marine reserves from rapacious fishing fleets
intent on fishing out the world's last tuna stocks, the
world's favourite fish (1).

The action took place in the
international waters of the Pacific Ocean (to the North of
the Solomon Islands) where legal fishers and pirates are
both plundering Pacific tuna. According to scientists,
overfishing is occurring with two key tuna species, bigeye
and yellowfin.

"The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries
Commission, which is supposed to be managing the fishery and
protecting the tuna, are failing to do their job", said
Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner Lagi Toribau on board the
Esperanza. "Both time and tuna are running out."

"The US
has negotiated an agreement to fish for tuna within the
waters of Pacific Island countries that have more positive
benefits for local people than those of Japan, Korea, China
and Taiwan. However, American vessels must only fish within
the waters of those Pacific Island countries", said Toribau.
"Every country who fishes in this region has the scientific
data that shows that bigeye and yellowfin tuna are in
trouble There needs to be an immediate closure of the
Pacific Commons to all fishing along with a 50% cut to tuna
fishing within Pacific Island country waters. Only then will
the livelihoods of Pacific nations, these tuna stocks and
all other marine life be protected and allowed to recover
from overexploitation."

Purse seine vessels surround
schools of fish with curtain-like nets to catch tuna. A rope
along the bottom of the net is pulled like a drawstring and
the whole catch is hauled onboard. A purse seine net can be
over one hundred metres long and catch up to 3000 tonnes of
fish in one trip.

"Advances in technology mean large ships
are now able to catch as much fish in two days as the
fishers of the small Pacific Island countries can catch in a
year. As tuna catches in other oceans have declined because
of overfishing, these fleets have now moved into the
Pacific. There are now nearly 600 purse seiners and over
3600 tuna longliners plundering the Western and Central
Pacific alone. This is clearly not sustainable", said
Toribau.

The Pacific provides approximately 60 per cent of
the world's tuna and each year foreign fishing fleets rake
in over US$3 billion from the sale of Pacific's tuna to
markets in Japan, Europe and the USA. Pacific nations are
being ripped off only receiving 5-6 per cent of the value of
the catch caught by foreign vessels in their national
waters. This is because of the unfair and unsustainable
agreements negotiated by foreign companies and countries for
access to fish for tuna in their waters.

"Greenpeace is
asking fish retailers worldwide to stop selling
unsustainable tuna products such as bluefin, bigeye and
yellowfin which are now threatened in all oceans. Retailers
must also ensure that any remaining tuna products that they
do sell are not sourced from pirates, or stolen from the
waters of developing countries such as those in the Pacific
under unfair access agreements", said Sari Tolvanen of
Greenpeace International.

A few days earlier, Greenpeace
targeted a Korean purse seiner and removed a FAD (fish
aggregation device (2)) which intensifies overfishing in the
same area of international waters.

According to the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation almost 80 per cent
of the world's commercial fish stocks are now fully or -
overexploited. Greenpeace advocates the creation of a
network of marine reserves, protecting 40 per cent of the
world's oceans, as the long term solution to overfishing and
the recovery of our overexploited
oceans.

Notes:

(1)
http://www.greenpeace.org/pacific_marine_reserves_map

(2)
The fishing industry has mimicked natural phenomena by
creating fake floats fixed with satellite or radio
transmitters - fish aggregation devices (FAD) - that tell
them when they have found the tuna so they can catch them
all - and any other marine life that swims along with
them.

Contact Greenpeace

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